May 2024 – Page 5 – DigitalKoans

"The Prevalence of Textbook Affordability and OER Initiatives at ARL Libraries"

Textbook affordability programs and the promotion of OER are well-established priorities for many academic libraries, but few studies have examined the prevalence of such programs either in general or across institution types. This paper presents the results of a study designed to gather information about textbook affordability initiatives at university libraries that are members Association of Research Libraries. It uses information from the publicly available websites of ARL libraries in the United States to determine how many of those institutions maintain textbook affordability programs, with those figures further broken down by status (public/private) and membership in the Open Education Network. In addition, the findings reveal some notable characteristics of textbook affordability programs, including an overall lack of visibility on institutional websites, a marked variety in financial incentives, and evidence of programs that have been discontinued.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2024.102884

Electronic Resources Librarian at North Carolina Central University

The Electronic Resources Librarian manages the Library’s electronic resources and ensures optimal and accurate access to subscription resources, including databases, electronic journals, and e-books.

https://jobs.nccu.edu/postings/30684

"Artificial Intelligence’s Role in Digitally Preserving Historic Archives"

The term "Artificial Intelligence" (AI) is increasingly permeating public consciousness as it has gained more popularity in recent years, especially within the landscape of academia and libraries. AI in libraries has been a trending subject of interest for some time, as within the library there are numerous departments that serve a role in collectively contributing to the library’s mission. Consequently, it is imperative to consider AI’s influence on the digital preservation of historic documents. This paper delves into the historical evolution of preservation methods driven by technological advancements as, throughout history, libraries, archives, and museums have grappled with the challenge of preserving historical collections, while many of the traditional preservation methods are costly and involve a lot of manual (human) effort. AI being the catalyst for transformation could change this reality and perhaps redefine the process of preservation; thus, this paper explores the emerging trend of incorporating AI technology into preservation practices and provides predictions regarding the transformative role of Artificial Intelligence in preservation for the future. With that in mind, this paper addresses the following questions: could AI be what changes or creates a paradigm shift in how preservation is done?; and could it be the thing that will change the way history is safeguarded?

https://doi.org/10.1515/pdtc-2023-0050

Audiovisual Preservation Specialist at Iowa State University

The AV Preservation Specialist is primarily responsible for maintaining and caring for the Special Collections & University Archives audiovisual collections and digital conversion of AV and film materials. In cooperation with SCUA and Preservation staff, the AV Preservation Specialist is instrumental in establishing preservation and digitization priorities for the collection. They will work with vendors and manage digital conversion projects, provide recommendations for preservation storage for both analog and digital masters, and assist in incorporating AV materials into the library’s digital collections.

https://bit.ly/3QANZ49

"Association of Research Libraries and Coalition for Networked Information Publish AI-Influenced Scenarios for Research Environment"

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) are pleased to announce the publication of The ARL/CNI 2035 Scenarios: AI-Influenced Futures in the Research Environment. These scenarios explore potential futures shaped by the rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI) and its integration within the research environment.

Developed through a robust, member-driven process, these scenarios serve as a strategic resource to aid leaders in the research environment in navigating the complex landscape of AI technologies. Library directors, IT leaders, funding agencies, academic presidents and provosts, and those working in scholarly publishing are among the many individuals who will find these scenarios useful. By examining diverse futures, ARL and CNI aim to equip their members with the foresight needed to proactively address the challenges and opportunities that AI presents.

https://tinyurl.com/24c7s7wn

Associate Dean for Collections and Discovery Services at San Diego State University

The Associate Dean for Collections and Discovery Services provides leadership for the design and implementation of strategies for the acquisition, access, discovery, development, management and long-term stewardship of its collections, information resources, and discovery platforms.

https://apply.interfolio.com/140375

"Thousands of AI Authors on the Future of AI"

In the largest survey of its kind, 2,778 researchers who had published in top-tier artificial intelligence (AI) venues gave predictions on the pace of AI progress and the nature and impacts of advanced AI systems The aggregate forecasts give at least a 50% chance of AI systems achieving several milestones by 2028, including autonomously constructing a payment processing site from scratch, creating a song indistinguishable from a new song by a popular musician, and autonomously downloading and fine-tuning a large language model. If science continues undisrupted, the chance of unaided machines outperforming humans in every possible task was estimated at 10% by 2027, and 50% by 2047. The latter estimate is 13 years earlier than that reached in a similar survey we conducted only one year earlier [Grace et al., 2022]. However, the chance of all human occupations becoming fully automatable was forecast to reach 10% by 2037, and 50% as late as 2116 (compared to 2164 in the 2022 survey).

Most respondents expressed substantial uncertainty about the long-term value of AI progress: While 68.3% thought good outcomes from superhuman AI are more likely than bad, of these net optimists 48% gave at least a 5% chance of extremely bad outcomes such as human extinction, and 59% of net pessimists gave 5% or more to extremely good outcomes. Between 38% and 51% of respondents gave at least a 10% chance to advanced AI leading to outcomes as bad as human extinction. More than half suggested that "substantial" or "extreme" concern is warranted about six different AI-related scenarios, including misinformation, authoritarian control, and inequality. There was disagreement about whether faster or slower AI progress would be better for the future of humanity. However, there was broad agreement that research aimed at minimizing potential risks from AI systems ought to be prioritized more.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.02843v2

UX Designer at West Virginia University (Remote)

The designer reports to the Director of Systems in the WVU Libraries and works as part of the Systems department. In this role, the UX designer will guide the development of front-end products for the WVU Libraries websites, web applications, digital collections, and other web-based resources, developing and conducting usability testing as part of a collaborative environment consisting of library, university, and community stakeholders.

https://tinyurl.com/3h3jw8vy

Paywall: "Transforming Academic Librarianship through AI Reskilling: Insights from the GPT-4 Exploration Program"

This case study examines the GPT-4 Exploration Program at the University of New Mexico’s College of University Libraries and Learning Sciences, which aimed to foster a culture of continuous learning and innovation by providing hands-on experience with advanced AI technology. . . . The study reveals that effective AI reskilling involves cultivating a culture of continuous learning, adaptability, and collaborative exploration, anchored in a practical, hands-on approach. Participants reported significant improvements in AI literacy and confidence in applying AI tools to their work.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2024.102883

Open Scholarship Librarian at Augusta University

Lead campus efforts in creating open educational textbooks, open educational resources, and other teaching materials

Collaborate with partners to expand open access efforts on campus and explore other open research opportunities

Serve on the University System of Georgia/GALILEO Georgia Knowledge Repository Committee and as the library champion for Affordable Learning Georgia on the Augusta University campus

https://www.augusta.edu/hr/jobs/

Paywall: "Open Peer Review Correlates with Altmetrics but Not with Citations: Evidence from Nature Communications and PLoS One"

The analysis reveals articles subjected to OPR [Open Peer Review] have no obvious advantage in citations but a notable higher score in altmetrics. The distribution of data variation across most disciplines, displaying a statistically significant difference between OPR and non-OPR, mirrors the overall trend. Two potential explanations for the disparity in OPR’s impact on citations compared to altmetrics are proposed. The first relates to the quality heterogeneity between OPR and non-OPR research, while the second is related to the diverse authors citing and mentioning articles in distinct communities.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2024.101540

Assistant Director of Research Support & Digital Initiatives, UT Libraries at University of Texas Austin

Reporting to the Director of Academic Engagement, the AD of RSDI identifies and implements strategic directions for services and programs to support academic research across all disciplines and in multiple modalities, including reference, research consultation, teaching, liaison work, research data services, open science practices, collection development, curation, and digital scholarship. . . . The AD of RSDI leads a department consisting of four teams: Two Engagement Teams of Subject Liaison Librarians are focused on innovative research lifecycle support, digital project work and initiatives, data management planning, and related skill building. The Digital Scholarship Team provides consultation and learning opportunities associated with Digital Humanities and Digital Scholarship and oversees the Scholars Commons and Scholars Lab, physical spaces and programmatic initiatives central to facilitating and showcasing digital project work, supporting all facets of the research lifecycle, and nurturing interdisciplinary community. Research Data Services is the fourth team and they coordinate training and support for data management, GIS, the Texas Data Repository, and engagement with the UT Open Source Program Office (OSPO).

https://tinyurl.com/4ccy8njj

"And Never the Twain Shall Meet? Institutional Open Access Policies (IOAPs) and Review, Promotion, and Tenure (RPT)"

Introduction: Institutional open access policies (IOAPs) express an institutional commitment to making scholarly knowledge openly accessible, typically by asking academics to deposit their scholarship into an open access (OA) repository. Faculty, however, must prioritize other scholarly requirements, such as those specified in review, promotion, and tenure (RPT) processes and policies. If IOAPs are ignored or in conflict with RPT, they will not be as effective as possible. Literature Review: Despite the fact that many higher education institutions say they value scholarly research contributing to the public good, they often do not articulate that OA is a necessary component to achieve this goal. Parallelly, increasing numbers of higher education institutions have adopted an IOAP, but few of them include the policy in RPT policies. Methods: An electronic survey was disseminated to members of the Coalition of Open Access Policy Institutions (COAPI) in order to quantify how many include the concept of OA and/or their IOAP in their RPT mechanisms. Results: Only four out of 28 respondents indicated that the concept of OA is integrated into RPT at their institution, and only one out of 28 reported that the IOAP is present in RPT. Discussion: Consistent with sparse examples in the literature, this study suggests that most IOAPs exist in separation from RPT, and this separation threatens the success of IOAPs. Conclusion: Faculty prioritize RPT guidelines in order to advance their careers, but these policies rarely address OA and IOAPs. More attention to the relationship between IOAPs and RPT is necessary in order to discover how they can complement one another and enhance scholarly knowledge production and exchange.

https://doi.org/10.31274/jlsc.16899

Systems Librarian at Middle Tennessee State University

The systems librarian is a Collection Development and Management (CDM) department member and reports to the chair. The position is highly collaborative, working with all members of the library and various campus partners. The systems librarian plays a key role in the work of the library and in making resources accessible to library users. They lead the Systems Unit within CDM, directly supervising one systems administrator and one applications support analyst.

https://tinyurl.com/bt4mjpe3

"Are Transformative Agreements Worth It? An Analysis of Open Access Publication Data at the University of Kentucky"

Open access publishing is continuing to grow as funders such as cOAlition S, National Institutes of Health, and the White House implement mandates and requirements that publicly funded research be made immediately available for public consumption. Publishers have adopted open access as a business model through transformative agreements that combine subscription and publishing fees. However, it is unclear whether these agreements are beneficial for libraries. This article discusses a project by the University of Kentucky Libraries to gather and analyze open access publication data to aid in the evaluation of transformative agreement proposals. This article also discusses how the University of Kentucky compares to peer institutions in the Southeastern Conference and other benchmark institutions regarding open access publishing output. Additionally, this article discusses downsides of transformative agreements and highlights promising alternatives.

https://doi.org/10.5860/lrts.68n1.8211

Electronic Resources Specialist at University of Pittsburgh

This position is responsible for the coordination, configuration, and administration of the institution’s extensive electronic resources collections. This position is instrumental in supporting the research and learning needs of the university community. Responsible for overseeing the lifecycle of electronic resources, including e-journals, databases, e-books, and digital media, from acquisitions to accessibility. Monitors, troubleshoots, and resolves access issues by communicating with vendors and stakeholders to ensure optimal functionality of resources. Reviews, interprets, and tracks license agreements to ensure compliance to support users.

https://tinyurl.com/twpc4vcc

"Navigating Open Access and Transformative Agreements: A Case Study of the University of Maryland"

"What should we be doing as a public institution when it comes to open access and transformative publishing agreements"” Most large US research institutions are facing this question, including the University of Maryland, College Park. This article explores this issue by looking at the University’s publishing landscape from a high level. It then dives deeper into three recent transformative agreements the University library has entered, investigating pricing, usage, and publishing data for a nonprofit society publisher, a for-profit commercial publisher, and, finally, a university press. The goal is to better understand how these agreements intersect with university-sponsored scholarship, library budgets, and the implications for the academic publishing landscape.

https://doi.org/10.5860/lrts.68n1.8219

Digital Initiatives Librarian at The University of Alabama

Oversees digital services operations in Special Collections, including supervision of staff and students working on digitization projects to ensure accuracy and productivity.

Designs and implements innovative online exhibits of resources in Special Collections.

Collaborates with the Head of Special Collections to set priorities for the digitization queue and determine intellectual property rights of resources.

Collaborates on joint projects between Special Collections and the Alabama Digital Humanities Center.

https://tinyurl.com/msymxw8a

"Exploring a Read and Publish Agreement: The Three-Year Taylor & Francis Pilot"

The Ohio State University Libraries (University Libraries) entered into a three-year read and publish pilot agreement with Taylor & Francis in 2020—the first read and publish agreement for The Ohio State University and the first such deal for Taylor & Francis in the Americas. This study provides an overview of University Libraries’ motivations behind the agreement, the lessons we learned implementing and supporting the agreement, and the open access publishing outcomes of the pilot agreement that ended December 2022.

https://doi.org/10.5860/lrts.68n1.8213

Electronic Resource Analysis Librarian at OhioLINK

OhioLINK is Ohio’s statewide academic library consortium, delivering both IT infrastructure and content negotiation to provide students, faculty, researchers and staff with access to valuable digital research collections at a fraction of the cost if those collections had to be purchased by individual institutions.

https://tinyurl.com/5yky7ubs

"ChatGPT Shows Better Moral Judgment than a College Undergrad"

In "Attributions toward artificial agents in a modified Moral Turing Test"—which was recently published in Nature’s online, open-access Scientific Reports journalmdash;those researchers found that morality judgments given by ChatGPT4 were "perceived as superior in quality to humans" along a variety of dimensions like virtuosity and intelligence. But before you start to worry that philosophy professors will soon be replaced by hyper-moral AIs, there are some important caveats to consider.

https://tinyurl.com/y4jtds4h

OhioLINK at Consortial Systems Librarian

OhioLINK seeks a Consortial Systems Librarian to serve as an integral part of supporting OhioLINK’s consortial Library Services Platform (LSP). The individual in this position will additionally help support the migration of OhioLINK libraries to Ex Libris’ Alma LSP.

https://tinyurl.com/ycsuttmf

"DIAMAS Report Investigating the Financial Sustainability of Institutional Publishers and Service Providers"

The report shows that although institutional publishers and service providers are diverse — in terms of their missions, sizes, services they provide and tasks they perform, access to funding options and the choices they make — they face similar challenges, such as the need for more financial resources, the lack of stability and permanence in personnel and the dependence on parent organizations. Along with public national or regional funders, parent organizations, which provide significant in-kind support (personnel, services), are the main local supporters of Diamond open access (OA).

https://tinyurl.com/ypnefum2

Data Planning and Presentation Librarian at Texas A&M University

Texas A&M University Libraries is hiring a new Data Planning and Presentation Librarian (Associate) with a passion for curating research data and data visualization to join their team. This Associate Librarian will be responsible for ensuring compliance with university, funding agency, and government requirements, and facilitating all parts of the research data lifecycle. In addition, this position will ensure that research data are cataloged, discoverable, and preserved in accordance with requirements.

https://tinyurl.com/yc7mt5xe

"2024 Library Systems Report"

At the behest of top-tier libraries, the race is on to create bibliographic and discovery environments supporting BIBFRAME and other linked data concepts. Companies will likely soon complete enhancements to support BIBFRAME, but the level of demand for these products remains to be seen.

The real unknown is AI. While many companies featured in this year’s and last year’s reports have announced ongoing plans to add generative AI to their offerings, this technology has not yet been integrated in any significant way. As the industry continues to work on harnessing AI in ways that limit bias and error, libraries can anticipate more prominent use of this technology in products within the next year or so.

https://tinyurl.com/3tskaycd